


Moving On

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Catharsis, Closure, Ficlet, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 16:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: A slight hesitation, and Pearl’s voice quivers slightly when she speaks again. She flexes her fingers out of habit. “Rose, I think, perhaps…you would be proud of me, too."Pearl finds closure.





	Moving On

**Author's Note:**

> That episode _destroyed_ me, but I am just so proud of Pearl!!

It’s after the giddy, miraculous madness following their return from Homeworld—after the Diamonds leave them in more peace than she would have ever dare allow herself to hope—that Pearl finally locates a moment to herself to slip away. She Warps to that ancient battlefield, that sacred place, paces with a confident contentedness past the strawberries where once she’d only skittered, and feels the wind push back her new form’s jacket as she bounds up the floating islands, like a cape in one of those silly comic books that Greg had gifted Steven.

She breathes. 

This time, when the likeness of Rose Quartz springs forth from her Gemstone, Pearl doesn’t kneel, but a smile breaks through her lips nonetheless. “Rose.” 

Admittedly, the epithet’s an anachronism. When they’d been here together, that first time, the form had been mere disguise rather than the persona it would become, and Pearl had addressed her accordingly. But whatever her aim might have been when she’d come then—and all the times since in the past five thousand and then these past fifteen years—historical reenactment isn’t the point now. And it’s not Pink Diamond that she needs to address.

(She’d been devoted to Pink, but that which bloomed out of that devotion to form its own creature had been for _Rose_...)

(It was never, she knows now, just about loving her. It was also about who she, a Pearl, was supposed to _be_ after her Diamond was gone...) 

Regardless of her name, the projection returns Pearl’s smile.

“Steven did it,” Pearl whispers after a moment. “He healed _all_ of them. They’re all back—all _themselves_ …I didn’t believe it was possible.” She pauses. “You would be so proud of him. _I_ am.”

A slight hesitation, and her voice quivers when she speaks again. She flexes her fingers out of habit. “I think, perhaps…you would be proud of me, too.

“You…you always wanted me to be my own Gem. It was part of your dream— _our_ dream—and I _wanted_ to. For _you_ , I wanted to. And after the War, I _tried_ , I pretended...but I couldn’t. Not in the way you wanted. Maybe you knew that.” Pearl sighs a watery sigh. “And even…even after you... _left_ , I was never able to...” She blinks. “But I think I am now.

“I’ll always love you, Rose. And I'll always miss you. But…I think I’m finally ready to be my own Gem, too...I think I’m finally ready to be...”

She smiles as she gazes into the Rose’s eyes, sees tears of joy reflected back at her. She thinks of Steven, of _all_ the people whom she loves—and who love her in turn—waiting for her at the Temple, of how expansive her universe of possibility has suddenly become. And for the first time, Pearl’s lips form the word that that has been on her mind, stuck in her throat, that she’s been trying to utter for millennia.

“...free.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
